Lady Vols basketball schedule 2025-26: Nonconference games in Kim Caldwell's second season
Lady Vols basketball announced its nonconference schedule for the 2025-26 season on Aug. 1, which only includes five home games.
Tennessee will play five nonconference games on the road and two at neutral sites. Including SEC play, the Lady Vols will 14 games against teams that made the 2025 NCAA Tournament. That also includes every team from the Final Four – Tennessee will play UCLA, UConn and South Carolina on the road and host Texas.
"Including our conference opponents, our schedule includes the top six teams and 10 of the top 20-ranked programs in the early preseason polls," Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell said in a school release. "We have our work cut out for us, but I believe our challenging non-conference opponents will better prepare us for what we're going to see in the Southeastern Conference.
"We're a little out of balance in terms of home and away ranked opponents, and that's something that takes some time to even out. We'll continue to work on it going forward, but I think this year it will allow us to really test our players and get them ready for conference play."
The nonconference slate took a step up in strength of schedule from Caldwell's first season. Tennessee only faced three power conference opponents during the 2024-25 nonconference schedule, and it will face five during the 2025-26 season. UT also only played one true nonconference road game last season.
The Lady Vols will open the season Nov. 4 against NC State in Greensboro, North Carolina. They will also make their return to the Women's Champions Classic in Brooklyn, New York, on Dec. 20 where they'll face Louisville. UT's fifth power conference opponent in nonconference play is at Stanford on Dec. 3 as part of the ACC/SEC Challenge.
Tennessee has 10 matchups with teams in ESPN's Top 25 including SEC play. South Carolina is the highest-ranked team in ESPN's projected rankings at No. 1 and UConn is the highest-ranked nonconference opponent at No. 2.
The nonconference slate includes four matchups with in-state opponents. The Lady Vols will face MTSU and UT Martin on the road and Belmont and ETSU at home. Next season, Tennessee will travel to Nashville to play Belmont and host MTSU in the final game of a four-game series.
Former Lady Vols guard and Knoxville native Avery Strickland transferred to Belmont this offseason. She played for Tennessee for two seasons and spending her freshman season at Pitt. Strickland, who graduated from Farragut, graduated from UT in May.
Tennessee Lady Vols basketball 2025-26 nonconference schedule
Oct. 29: Columbus State (exhibition)
Nov. 4: vs. NC State in Greensboro
Nov. 7: vs. ETSU
Nov. 9: at UT Martin
Nov. 13: vs. Belmont
Nov. 20: at MTSU
Nov. 23: vs. Coppin State
Nov. 30: at UCLA
Dec. 3: at Stanford
Dec. 14: vs. Winthrop
Dec. 20: vs. Louisville (Women's Champions Classic)
Dec. 22: vs. Southern Indiana
Feb. 1: at UConn
Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks:knoxnews.com/subscribe